Dug out a couple of Mantles for comparison - the 1967 version and the 1974 version. Hope that's what you were looking for, Elm!

Nice ad, Dave! Had I HAD $10 as a young kid (which was a lot back then, especially for this kid!), I would have had a hard time picking which card artwork I would go after. I may have gone with my heart to grab the 69 Mets artwork, or maybe a Ruth, Feller, or Carl Hubbell throwing his screwball, since they were a couple of my favorite old timers!

The Fleer Sticker Blog Spot had a nice picture of one of these matted artwork/card sets, contributed by Troy, I believe, who is on Net54 and commented on this thread. Maybe he will be kind enough to post a pic? I have one of a 1970 card and artwork that is matted, but it is fairly crudely matted, so I doubt that Bob did the matting on it, but it does resemble the one Troy has, I think.

I absolutely love these cards and have complete sets of ‘70 and ‘71. Another way to distinguish the two is the ‘70 set has no MLB logo on the front while the ‘71 set does have the MLB logo.

One question on the ‘67 set. Do all the ‘67 sets have Bob’s address on the back while the ‘74 set has no address line? Is that what distinguish them?

I have a few graded ones that have no address yet the label from PSA distinguishes it as a ‘67.

Thanks folks


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I can't believe Laughlin made much, if anything, on the stuff he sold. He had a good gig outside of his cards, so maybe he just did it for fun? Imagine!

Can you also post the front scan of the 'with address' card, por favor?

Hey Morris!

Yes - the 1967 printing has the address on the back. His second print run in 1974 has no address. I never found verification of the actual count of the 1974 sets, but if I had to guess, I would say in the 500 to 1000 range.

I agree, Dave, he did not get rich on any of this - definitely a labor of love! I know for some of his later sets, he tried to break even with the first batch of sets, and then hoped he could do another batch of sets if they sold well. As of 1976, he had stated that he did not produce more than 1500 of any of his sets (excluding the Fleer issues, of course). I think he may have gone over that with the 300-400-500 and the 1980 Famous Feats sets, which are somewhat more plentiful than the other sets.

Hey Elm! Happy to oblige!

I checked my stash and found one so far:

https://photos.imageevent.com/exhibi...b%20Wagner.jpg

I might have another somewhere.

Now that someone mentioned it, I do recall buying a few packs of these way back when I was a little kid.

Hey Adam - that's a really nice 1967 card of Honus and Ty!

Here is the "matted" card and art I have. Similar to how Bob matted them, but I am thinking he didn't do this one, unless he was in a hurry and used a bad pair of scissors. Still love the original artwork!

More Laughlin fun, an ad for his Inside Pitch newsletter, October 1975 Trader Speaks. There's a banged up copy on eBay right now but the content looks pretty basic. Still pretty cool though and dig the subscription extra!

:)

Not a lot of the newsletters left out there, but they are a really great source of information about Bob and some of his issues. He included the oversized card, but he folded the newsletter for mailing, so most of the few oversized Mattys that exist would likely have a nice fold down the middle. I picked up the full run of newsletters quite a few years ago that were folded (no Matty!) as mailed, and then later picked up another set that wasn't mailed out with an unfolded Matty (above). I think he had a lot of fun with the newsletters, but they got to be too much work at the end of the run.

Your last sentence describes almost every hobby publication save SCD I think. The time involved manually putting issues together back then was significant and then the very boring task of managing subs would loom, let alone the actual mailings.

So getting back to the World Series cards, I've found 2 or 3 references in 1970's issues of The Trader Speaks to the 1954 NY Journal-American cards being partially distributed via Good Humor trucks. That is all.

A fine update!! I replaced the Clemente and Yaz OC cards with beautiful straight 9's, so I updated the OP to include them...

Attachment 402308

I now have high grade doubles of each of the seven separate cards to trade.

Those are blazin' beauties, elm!!! :)

Beautiful cards Darren

OK, a tighter look at some 1979 Trader Speaks issues found this in February:

Nice ad, Dave! What I find interesting/puzzling is that I have been watching most Fleer WS and Laughlin listings on eBay for over 20 years, and I have not once seen a complete mint set of 1978s offered as I would have expected if people had bought a set through Bob. Every time I have seen the update cards (not often), they have either been individuals or (usually) in an assorted lot. Almost all of Bob's other sets that he sold are often (usually?) offered in complete set form. I am guessing he didn't sell a large quantity of these sets himself.

Thanks again for sharing the ad!

The whole extended series is odd, which means I love it! I cheated with mine and got the sticker backs for the extension, except I did add a real 71 Clemente WS. Laughlin was right, they were a good investment!

So our possible Good Humor Distro Checklist:

1954 NY Journal American
1966 Topps USA Hockey
1978 Fleer World Series

Every 12 years!

Here is a Laughlin ad from the March 1967 issue of The Sports Trader, launching a 7 month subscription plan for the 1967 World Series Set-cowabunga!

Wow...yet another wrinkle is added to the 1967 Laughlin mystery. Toppcat, you're killing me!!! :eek:

Look at the artwork in the ad. It's different from what is found in the Laughlin World Series set. What's most notable to me, and what immediately jumps out, is Matty's head. The cards we know have his head casually tilted back, but the ad features it more straight up and down. Plus, the typeface is different (not handwritten), his head doesn't break the top border, the pinstripes aren't identical, the baseball (which is larger and shaped differently) contains actual stitching, and the '1905' is also completely different...and there are other variances as well. Here's the ad (left) compared to a standard card (right)...

Attachment 406666

Now the question becomes, was the ad simply thrown together based on pre-production artwork (I actually have a bit of evidence that seemingly disputes the timing), or were there actually cards produced corresponding to/similar to that specific layout??

Found this nugget in the early June 1970 issue of The Ballcard Collector. I live in NYC environs so bought the 1970 issue as a kid but I've never seen that it might have been a limited release. Interesting.

Looks like Detroit at least got some too, Oct. 1970 issue of The Ballcard Collector:

Joly Em, pm sent.

In regards to the 71 Fleer WS cards, just wanted to thank the various posters in this thread for highlighting the differences between the cards issued in 71 and then "re-issued" in 78. I recently bought a second set of 71s to upgrade the set I already had and when I first saw the new cards there was a noticeable difference between those and the 71s I already had...I checked this thread and was able to identify that my new set has the lighter, cream colored backs and are the "re-issued" cards from 78. Now I have a set of each, thank you again.

I've posted a look at the Feb 25, 1967 Sporting News Cover that featured Bob Laughlin's artwork:

https://fleersticker.blogspot.com/20...-style_23.html

Thanks for posting this! I was going to do the same a few weeks back, and went to the drawer I was certain this Sporting News issue was in, and it wasn't! :)

How about this drawing from the cover of Ralph Nozaki's "The Mistake Manual".

The Collectors ran ina couple of 70's hobby pubs, mostly BCN from what I've seen. I have a bunch scanned if people want to see them here.

Here's a Laughlin ad from the April 30, 1974 SCD:

Baseball Card News July 4 1977:

I just picked up a nice hoard of Laughlin sets :cool: .

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...d103c19d_c.jpg

Can't be many of these out there:

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...e108e1e4_n.jpg

Those are great, Andrew, and they look pristine.

I got lucky. Most of the cards look untouched by human hands. Finally had some time to get the better sets protected yesterday.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...618496b4b5.jpg

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...322f150118.jpg


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What a great looking group of sets, Andrew! Pretty close to a full run of Bob's sets in one fell swoop, and an extra set of the 78 Long Ago Black Stars sets to boot! Congrats!

And a set that never was
 

Attachment 413040

Mike

Thanks! I had a few of these already but was VERY happy to add the rest, including the 1978 Black Stars set.


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Interesting!


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Flitting about the Fleer Sticker Blog tonight and ran across an interesting scan re the 77 WS set with bonus POB content re SP's.

Link first (it's the second para. and scan in the post): https://fleersticker.blogspot.com/20...eball-2nd.html

These are files that Marty attached earlier in the thread. They show how Mr. Laughlin (I assume at the very beginning of his print run) 'thickened' his cards by pasting the thin sheets together...

Attachment 416719
Attachment 416720

Has anyone ever tried to soak these cards to remove the glue/paste from the backs? I am completely assuming it's a terrible idea, because there's no gloss on the cards, the stock is very thin, and the thick glue/paste covers the entire card (plus, we don't know if it's water-based), so it seems they would deteriorate during any attempt to do so. Many, if not all, of the first 18 cards in the set (with the address on back) that I own have the same widespread, obnoxious adhesive infection that's pictured above, and I would love to POOF!! make it go away...if it did no damage.

Does anyone have experience soaking these guys?? A terrible idea, right? Don't want to sacrifice any of my cards in a silly, ill-fated attempt.

Thought I'd revitalize this thread after so long, because I realized something funny today: marketing is everything!!!

Whenever I've seen pics of unopened 1970 Fleer packs, I instantly recognized the player on front as The Miracle Mets' hero, Ron Swoboda. It's a spitting image. However, the guys in Philadelphia obviously just took the illustration of 'Moose' Skowron from the 1963 card and gussied him up in Mets orange and blue* to take advantage of the post-1969 Amazins fervor in the huge New York market!!!!! Hilarious...and kudos to them.

Attachment 476318


*Or had Mr. Laughlin himself rework the image.

Nice catch Darren, very impressive.

Laughlin
 

Here are my Laughlins: 300/400/500